Columbus Rides Bikes!

Click to Open Overlay Gallery GERMANY GETS A  lot of things right. Huge beer mugs. Amusingly long words made up on a whim. And best of all, a highway system made for going as fast as possible.  Now, Munich wants to extend the thrill of the open highway to cyclists with  a network of bike lanes  running through the city and into the suburbs, in a bid to encourage car-free commuting. [Keep reading at Wired]

  In Groningen, an estimated 61% of all trips are made by bicycle. Photograph: Alamy Motorists woke up one mid-70s morning to find new one-way streets made direct crosstown journeys impossible by car. Forty years later Groningen boasts two-thirds of all trips made by bike … and the cleanest air of any big Dutch city Traffic lights with rain sensors to give quicker priority to cyclists on wet days … Heated cycle paths so cyclists won’t slip during bouts of frost … This might sound like science fiction to you, but in the Dutch city of Groningen it will soon be everyday reality.  The inhabitants of this lively northern university city regard their homestead as the cycling capital of the Netherlands. They might very well be right: 61% of all trips in Groningen are made by bicycle, rising to more than 70% for  trips made to educational institutions . You might think the city authorities would be satisfied with these statistics. But apparently it’s not enough, and new plans are in

Most of us lead a life that revolves around work. The average US worker, for example, clocks  47 hours a week , and when you add the  time we spend commuting , another five to 10 hours, it pushes our total work-related hours over 55. Then there's  work-related stress , which damages our health. All of that can paint a vulgar picture of life in our modern world, one that two or three weeks' vacation can hardly remedy. Then there are those who refuse to buy into all that and choose to live on the fringe, like  Ultra Romance , a 35-year-old from the Connecticut River valley who works as little as possible — usually for six months a year — and then goes adventuring around the world with his bike and modest camping gear. [Keep reading at Business Insider UK]

After surveying 18,000 people, Wesley Marshall, an associate professor of civil engineering  at the University of Colorado, is trying to understand why cyclists, in particular, might bend  or flat-out flout traffic regulations. Credit:  Sascha Kohlmann via Flickr Answer honestly. As a bicyclist do you follow all the rules and regulations of the road? Ever zipped over the speed limit, or glided past a stop sign when no one’s around? When it comes to obeying traffic laws, “we’re all criminals,” says  Wesley Marshall,  an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado. After surveying 18,000 people, Marshall is trying to understand why cyclists, in particular, might bend or flat-out ignore traffic regulations. [keep reading at Public Radio International (PRI)]

Photo The Astana Pro team’s Vincenzo Nibali during the second stage of the Tour de France on July 5 in the Netherlands.   Credit Sebastien Nogier/European Pressphoto Agency RODEZ, France — When  Alberto Contador  won the  Tour de France  in 2010 while riding a bicycle made by Specialized for the first time, Andrew Love was both elated and apprehensive. “I knew they would be coming,” Love, the company’s head of brand protection, investigation and legal enforcement, recalled. Contador’s success was ultimately short-lived — the title was revoked two years later because of doping — but that had nothing to do with Love’s fear: that Contador’s victory aboard the Specialized carbon fiber bicycle frame would hasten the arrival of copies from China, where there has been a surge in counterfeit high-end bikes, wheels and even helmets. Unlike, for example, a fake Rolex watch that stops ticking, fake cycling products can have dangerous consequences, several manufacturers said. [Keep

Ale-8-One is a  ginger-ale-like soda  usually sold in glass bottles and popular in the hills of eastern  Kentucky . During a bike trip through the region last month, for example, I washed down a burger with one on the back porch of a bed-and-breakfast owned by a man who once walked more than 3,000 miles across America on stilts. The next night, I blasted another out of the crook of a tree branch with a 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson. I rarely drink soda and I’m not into guns. But what’s the point of travel if not to have new and sometimes discomforting experiences? Frugal Traveler Tips for how to navigate the world on a tight budget. A $50 Day in Knoxville, Tennessee  JUL 2 How to Eat on a Budget While Traveling  JUN 24 How to Pick a Cellphone Plan for Traveling Abroad  JUN 16 Exploring Franche-Comté, France’s Well-Kept Secret  JUN 11 In Sardinia, an Affordable Family-Run Farm Stay  JUN 4 See More » Eastern Kentucky, Appalachian coal country, was, in

Breakfast rides became a popular Sunday non-event a generation ago. The rides were the idea of Harold Absalonson. This photo was taken March 28, 1983. (Rich Landers/Photo Archive/The Spokesman-Review) By Lindsey Wallace I’m done wearing a bike helmet. Now, don’t hold me to that. Maybe I’ll want one in the winter when the roads are icy. Maybe I’ll be required to wear one on a group ride. Maybe I’ll travel cross-country, planning to bike on deserted roads. But when it comes to casual riding, I’m done. At the conference I attended last week, I mentioned, “I don’t wear a helmet, and I’m a public health professional,” to audible gasps and laughter. I invited people to ask me why later, and many of them did. I’ll share with you what I told them in just a moment, but let me preface this: I think the main problem around making an informed decision about whether to wear a helmet is hard because there isn’t great data around helmet use. Due to the confirmation bias, we’re all looking for

CC BY 2.0 Lloyd Alter/ Vancouver bike infrastructure We do go on about bike safety, primarily the question of whether the emphasis should be on building better infrastructure for cyclists so they don’t get squished or mandating helmets for their head to try and protect them when they do. On the  Alternative Department for Transport,  a UK website, the author notes that in the UK people do wear helmets and hi-vis vests- because they are afraid not to. If we genuinely want to make cycling safer, more helmets aren’t the solution. They are really a good indicator that the streets aren’t safe. When people don’t feel safe when cycling, they will wear a helmet – and hi-vis vest – with or without advertising. Higher helmet use shouldn’t be a goal, it should be seen as a failure of policy, an embarrassing statistic. An increase in helmets is a sign that the government has failed miserably in their duty to provide safe streets. The Minister of the ADFT (he doesn’t give his name) go

Megamoon from Maia Media on Vimeo .

Paris plans to triple the number of cyclists in the city by 2020 Cyclists in Paris are to be allowed to ride through red lights after tests showed the move would not lead to accidents. Traffic lights for bicycles will be placed under the traffic lights for cars on some junctions. The lights will indicate when bikes can either turn right or ride ahead - even when lights for cars are on red. [Keep reading at BBC]

The safest country in the world for cycling is the Netherlands. There you’ll also find  the widest spectrum  of people cycling: from young children (the average age at which children begin to cycle independently is about 8 years old) to elderly people (those over 65 cycle for over 25% of journeys). So, the Netherlands is the safest country for cycling at any age, yet helmet use is only 0.5% – and it’s likely that the 1-in-200 helmet-wearing cyclists  are riding for sport . Cycling safety is  clearly something more  than wearing a styrofoam hat – and yet the German ministry for transport is  gung-ho for helmets . All ages and physical abilities, cycling without helmets – yet the safest in the world. Helmets are no answer to dangers on the street. In the UK, most cyclists wear a helmet, yet cycling there is six times more dangerous than in the Netherlands (and that figure ignores the fact that hardly any children or elderly people cycle there).  If we genuinely want to make c

Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com On minimum tire pressure Dear Lennard, I read with interest  your reply to Manny  with regard to 25mm tyre pressures. I recently purchased 25mm Vittoria Open Corsa SC tyres, and these are clearly marked with “Clincher MIN to MAX pressure: 115 to 145 PSI.” This seems quite unreasonably high to me, so I’m wondering what is a safe minimum pressure to use with 25mm clinchers (would be interesting to hear from your contacts at other tyre manufacturers), and why does Vittoria see the need for such a high minimum pressure? — Simon Dear Simon (I sent this answer directly to Simon), Here is the response to your question from Vittoria: According to ETRTO, bicycle tires are allowed to deflect 30% of its height at maximum load only. We respect the ETRTO, but we do not limit the body weight of our customers. 115PSI minimum air pressure is the consequence for our high-end 25mm tire with its very flexible casing; the minimum air pressure is related to the

A WIND-PROOF, BREATHABLE BIB WORN  UNDERNEATH  YOUR OUTERMOST LAYER. Useful at any temperature from the 60's down. Turn any garment into a wind-proof garment. Localized Layering™  adds warmth and comfort to any level of  layering. Wear under a short-sleeve tee or jersey to stay comfortable in cool weather, even with strong headwinds Wear between base layers and a warm jacket for increased comfort Increase the warmth & comfort of  any   outer layer , with a minimum of bulk Easy to put on or take off, without removing the outermost layer. Aero!  Nothing flaps in the wind. Can be worn as an outermost layer if desired Machine wash cold, tumble dry low A versatile and comfortable tool for your keep-warm toolbox All models use a comfortable neck strap with a buckle at the left shoulder.  For those who want to wear a WinBib™ as their outermost layer, tabs at the lower corners can be used to tie a string (not prov

A woman rode a Citi Bike near Madison Square Park on Monday. Women take about a quarter of all Citi Bike trips and make up just under a third of its members.   Credit Christopher Lee for The New York Times  When she passes a row of shiny blue Citi Bikes in Manhattan, Yael Steren often wants to stop and take one for a ride. Then the doubt creeps in. Braving city traffic without a helmet seems too risky. But carrying one around all day would be a hassle. “I know how crazy the drivers are here,” said Ms. Steren, 36, a personal stylist who lives in Greenwich Village. Like many women in New York City, she has weighed the wind-in-your-hair joy of urban cycling with the pulse-quickening anxiety of steering between barreling trucks and decided against taking a spin. When Citi Bike arrived here, it promised to spread the benefits of biking to the masses, an uphill push in a city where large potholes, heedless yellow cabs and darting pedestrians can make riding on busy streets seem